Yekaterina II of Russia

Yekaterina I of Russia (2 May 1729-17 November 1796), also called Catherine the Great was the Tsarina of the Russian Empire from 1762 to 1796. The Wars of Catherine the Great extended the territory of the Russian empire, mostly at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and Poland.

Biography
Sophie of Anhalt was born in Stettin in Pomerania, belonging to Prussia. Yekaterina was wedded to Peter III of Russia, but after his assassination in 1762 by rebellious nobles, she was placed on the throne of the Russian Empire as the first and longest-reigning empress of Russia.

In 1768 she crushed the Bar Confederation rebellion of her former lover Stanislaw II of Poland, and fought a war against Mustafa III of Poland from that year to 1774. Catherine's rise to power proved that she was as good, if not better, than any male king and her lover Grigory Orlov delivered a crushing defeat to the Ottomans in the Battle of Chesma Bay in July 1770. In 1783 she annexed the Crimean Khanate and in 1787 she took part in a joint attack on the Ottomans with Joseph II of Austria. While the Austrians extended their Balkan holdings with the capture of Belgrade in 1789, Russia defeated the Ottomans and Swedish by 1792. That year she crushed a Polish revolt, just as she did two years later. By the time of her death in 1796 Russia was dominant on the Black Sea.